Phones are NOT linked to giving your cancer, major new international study of 250,000 mobile users says

Long-term use of mobile phones is not linked to an increased risk of developing brain cancer, according to a major international study.

Researchers followed 250,000 mobile users, including those people who used their phone for extended periods of time, during the 17-year project.

The research, led by Imperial College London and Sweden’s Karolinska Institute asked volunteers about mobile phone use, then followed them to see if they later developed a tumour. There has long been concern that electromagnetic waves from phones were a danger to health, but the study found no link to increased risk of brain cancer.

Professor Mireille Toledano, of Imperial College, called the results ‘reassuring’, especially as today’s mobile phone usage is substantially different from when the study started. Newer phones emit weaker electromagnetic fields and ‘people today also spend far less time with their phone to their head and more time on video calls, social media, and surfing the internet’.

Professor Paul Elliott, also of Imperial, added: ‘This is the world’s largest multinational long-term study [of its kind]. We found no evidence that long-term or heavy mobile phone use is associated with the risk of common brain tumours.’

The team’s research, published in the journal Environment International, found the prevalence of brain tumours among the ten per cent of people who spent the most hours on a mobile phone did not differ significantly from those who used the mobile phone much less.